Chiefs wonder if ACL players will ever be the same

The Kansas City Chiefs have a number of key players making their way back from season-ending knee injuries.

Running back Jamaal Charles, tight end Tony Moeaki and safety Eric Berry are all in that number, coming off ACL surgery in 2011. With the Chiefs off to an 0-2 start and all three players having varying degrees of success in their returns, Coach Romeo Crennel questioned whether or not those players will be what they were before their injuries.

“Those guys are playing and they’re practicing, and so they are good enough to play,’’ Crennel told the Kansas City Star. “Now, whether they’ll ever be back to what they used to be, I don’t know if that’s going to be the case, because they’ve had a reconstruction on the knee. Will it be like it was before the reconstruction? I don’t know that will be the case.

“But that does not keep guys from playing this game.’’

While the time it takes players to recover from major knee surgery has certainly lessened, and the early successes of some players in their returns offers encouragement, but conventional wisdom in the past says it usually takes a full year for the player to return to previous form after ACL surgery.

So the Chiefs may have to be patient, something that isn't easy to do when the team is 0-2 with expectations of being a contender.

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